Over 895,000 without power as Florence batters Carolinas

U.S. authorities on Friday downgraded Florence from a hurricane to a tropical storm, as the still risky weather system unleashed torrential rains but saw its wind power weaken slightly, reported AFP.

Authorities have confirmed those storm-related deaths, including a mother and her infant child who died after a tree fell on their home in New Hanover County, where the storm hit Friday morning with a 105 miles per hour wind gust, the strongest wind in the city since 1958.

"It can not be emphasized enough that the most serious hazard associated with slow-moving Florence is extremely heavy rainfall, which will cause disastrous flooding that will be spreading inland", forecasters said, reports CBS News.

North Carolina officials said there had been at least seven storm-related fatalities in the state, with unconfirmed reports of a further three deaths.

"We knew this was going to be a big storm, but it is going to be of epic proportions", North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told a news conference in Raleigh.

Forecasters said the storm will eventually break up over the southern Appalachians and make a sharp rightward swing to the northeast, its rainy remnants moving into the mid-Atlantic states and New England by the middle of the week.

The National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a tropical storm on Friday afternoon, but warned that life-threatening storm surges, in which water is pushed by a storm over land that would normally be dry, catastrophic freshwater flooding were still expected.

The hurricane has claimed its first victims as it crashed into North Carolina, making landfall near Wrightsville Beach. Storm Helene and tropical storm Isaac are churning at some stage within the Atlantic Ocean, whereas Storm Mangkhut threatens 5 million people within the Philippines and China. "The station was flying 255 miles over the storm at the time this video was captured".

In Bayboro, North Carolina, one of the areas under evacuation, resident Kim Dunn stayed behind.

The storm caused chaos in the region, with trees strewn across roads, buildings battered and power cut to nearly 700,000 homes. Several places already had more than 16 inches (40 centimeters) of rain, and Oriental, North Carolina got more than 20 inches (50 centimeters) in just a few hours.

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Power outages from Florence, which was downgraded to a tropical storm early Friday evening, have topped 700,000 customers.

Scroll down for a look at the damage and destruction caused by this monster storm.

But more than 140 people are still waiting to be helped.

In New Bern, North Carolina, the storm surge overwhelmed the town of 30,000 which is located at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers.

North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, had around 7 inches (18 centimeters).

Eventually, a volunteer rescue team that had arrived in North Carolina from in came with a boat and rescued them.

The authorities of the States of Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and the nation's capital of Washington, in the direction which moves the "Florence", has introduced a state of emergency. The streets were mostly deserted and some were blocked by fallen trees. Rescue crews have used boats to reach hundreds besieged by the rising waters.

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The relationship between climate change and hurricanes is a complex one.

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